Is The US Meddling In Polish ACTA Voting?

from the how-dare-they? dept

With the immediate threat from SOPA/PIPA on hold, people have started to turn their attention to the long-running saga of ACTA. While it was being negotiated behind closed doors, few people knew about it, and protests against it were muted. Now that it has finally emerged into the open and begins its last dash towards the finishing line of ratification, the pace of anti-ACTA activism is beginning to pick up quickly. That's especially true in Europe, where everything hinges on the result of the European Parliament's vote on the treaty later this year. If it rejects it, ACTA is dead.

First we had the dramatic resignation of the European Parliament's "rapporteur" on ACTA, then the public apology of the Slovenian Ambassador to Japan for signing ACTA last week in Japan. Individual members of the European Parliament are also coming out against ACTA, notably the Dutch MEP Marietje Schaake, who has prepared an excellent briefing document on the subject, together with severalBulgarian MEPs. But without doubt, the main focus of anti-ACTA actions so far has been in Poland.

"--It was around 11.00 in the morning when an employee from the US Embassy called. She was curious about the voting [on ACTA]. He has counted the votes and she thought some of the deputies were missing. Eight deputies were for, three against, four have held up. Something's wrong here, because some votes seem to be missing." -- said Mieczysław Golba from Solidarna Polska.

As another Polish politician explained:

"-- If the US embassy was just interested in the voting itself, it's okay with us. But questioning about party discipline is scandalous"-- says Sławomir Neumann from PO. -- "Americans should calm down a little, as such behaviour is an interference into the internal affairs of the Polish parliament. We can treat Americans as friends, but there are some borders that one shouldn't cross.We are partners, but not a parliament dependent on the Congress or the president's Obama administration."

Assuming this really was someone from the US embassy checking up on the whether Polish politicians were following the party line on ACTA -- there's been no independent corroboration yet -- it does seem pretty extraordinary. Judging by the generally outraged tone of the 1100+ comments on this piece, the Poles themselves don't seem very happy either. I think we can expect to hear much more about Poland's resistance to ACTA in the coming weeks.

Re: I am part Polish...

Don't worry at the rate things are going in the USA we'll just change the words polish or Poland to american or America.

America... the most technologically advanced backwards thinking country in the world. It used to anger me how much of a decline we Americans have seen in our science programs and progress often at the behest of congress so we can continue all our "ideological wars" be it on terrorism, drugs and copyright. Looking at how we laud and embrace idiocy I feel like our decline as a world power can't come soon enough. We've gotten fat, lazy and far too self entitled for our own good. Let another country have it's golden age as we slide into our self induced technological dark age.

Re: Hmmm... Warsaw

Polish people don't like having their freedom taken away (especially since we got it back just 22 years ago). It's sort of in our blood to rebel against those who try to control us, and form time to time we'll kick some ass :)

Re: Re: Hmmm... Warsaw

might explain why Poland refuses to stay conquered :D (i don't think any other country has disappeared off the map And Come Back as many times as Poland. i could be wrong though. all sorts of perspective distorting factors that could play into that.)

Re: you know what?

"dear constituent- because that's politics, and because we can. Would you rather they were dictating to us? what are you, some kind of commy terrorist? Why do you hate america? How long have you worked for al qauida?

Stay where you are, someone will be along to collect you soon. We have some questions about that lawn fertilizer you purchased last year. Also, those dodgy websites we've noticed you looking at

Re:

It's crucial to realize that the state acts as its own representative in many ways. It will trade favors among those with something to offer, but it has little more than a ceremonial role as a representative of the people.

Classic misdirection. Looking for a way to not be accountable for their actions, the Polish government is pointing fingers across the ocean now. I guess it's a good thing, as they seem to have realized that ACTA can't just secretly sail through.

Re:

I don't think it's misdirection, at least not in this case. Embassy did call - they admitted to that, and the government is not pointing fingers - it's trying to get out of the mess it created. It;s been trying to get out of it since the first demonstration in Warsaw.

Re:

I guess the most interesting part of this is considering how they thought it would be possible to pass ACTA in the wake of all the outrage against SOPA? Did they think that SOPA headlines would hide their attempt to keep it all silent? Maybe they thought that SOPA would easily pass as well, and that it would be all a done deal with none the wiser, only realizing their mistake far too late.

Re:

ACTA was already working its way through the system before SOPA/PIPA even hit the table. They figured given how little resistance there has been to their pet legislations: DMCA (a few small concessions), Pro IP, sneaking ACTA through the early stages in secret and so on, as well as the lack of outrage for other interests pet legislations: Patriot Act, its continued renewal, NDAA, and so on, they figured they'd hit more than minimal resistance popping SOPA/PIPA through to complement ACTA.

There own greed actually got in the way of their goals this time though. Had they waited on SOPA/PIPA, or been less adamant about ramming it through at all costs, ACTA most likely would have sailed through the system as little more than a distant blip on all but a small handful of radars.

Given the growing outrage of communities large and small, it will be interesting when knowledge of the ultra secret TPP negotiations begin to become far more widely known, and when details of those negotiation start to be ferreted out.

Re:

So far it has been the only piece of news in relation with the US (and not the US gov. but the embassy). There has been bashing but of the protesters ('young' 'stupid' 'misguided' 'manipulated'), of the Polish governemt officials, of internet pirates, etc. No one here is focused on the American government that much (really).

"So far it has been the only piece of news in relation with the US (and not the US gov. but the embassy). There has been bashing but of the protesters ('young' 'stupid' 'misguided' 'manipulated'), of the Polish governemt officials, of internet pirates, etc. No one here is focused on the American government that much (really)."

Mob rule tactics --> give the mob a more tantalizing target. One must ask oneself why this is news, when it certainly isn't such an outrage, honestly. They called up and asked a question--is it really logical to be concerned or outraged about that in any way? Surely worse things have happened to these people before.

Re:

"is it really logical to be concerned or outraged about that in any way?"

Honestly - it's 'old news'. Media talked about it for one day (some days ago) and moved on. Personally, I don't think it's such a bad thing to enquire about what happens and what thae result of voting are. But questiong the validity of the voting, who was present, were there enough people for the voting to be valid - it seems to undermine the Polish authority over its own matters.

"Surely worse things have happened to these people before."
Surely, yes. But it doesn't mean thet 'less bad' things should be ignored.

Finally some good news

"Honestly - it's 'old news'. Media talked about it for one day (some days ago) and moved on. Personally, I don't think it's such a bad thing to enquire about what happens and what thae result of voting are. But questiong the validity of the voting, who was present, were there enough people for the voting to be valid - it seems to undermine the Polish authority over its own matters."

I'm not sure that we can truly understand the motives of the questioning, but to assume that the motives are bad--seems unreasonable. I think most everyone believes that:

"Clearly, something very interesting is happening at all levels of Polish society as a result of ACTA, and someone else has noticed this too." [quoted from this article]

At face value, questions are asked because an honest answer is expected. It must seem to many others, as it seemed to me, that there was a rush to pass ACTA before the public knew about it. I'd want to get to the truth of that as well.

Re:

It must seem to many others, as it seemed to me, that there was a rush to pass ACTA before the public knew about it.

That has been "Standard Operating Procedure" from the outset. Secret negotiations, anything we "proles" knew about it came from leaks, & etc. This has been a highly undemocratic procedure with no oversight from us from the beginning, which we were simply expected to accept as an accomplished fact once done. In the USA, it's an Executive Agreement, not even vetted, nor challengable, by Congress!

Procedurally, it's smelled like rotten fish from day one. That should make anyone suspicious about what strings are being pulled, and by whom.

my money is on 'yes, it was someone from the US embassy'. the US has interfered/still is interfering in other nations politics with the threat of sanctions against them if those other nations dont do as the US wants. all for the entertainment industries, remember. they dont have the right to interfere and dont have the right to put their economy before that of the countries they are threatening. it is definitely time for the US to back off and butt out! there's gonna be some serious consequences before long if not!

Re:

STOP ACTA

If the American people knew anything about ACTA do you think we would have something to say? Answer is HELL YES! This was kept hidden and never let out. I for one disagree with ACTA and would love to have the chance to tell my gov't so. Thank you Poland for taking a stand and I hope others will follow to keep the Internet FREE!!!

Re: STOP ACTA

Let's not forget that the current form of ACTA is a "watered down" version from where it originally started, and that even as we protest it, they are even now working on TPP, which starts where ACTA originally started and tries to go in the opposite direction from where ACTA ended up.

One wonders, with all this protest, if any of these bad ideas (ACTA, TPP, etc) were to become laws. How many people would actually follow it?

And it's quite simple to solve really. If their claims of the profitability of the illegal sites are true, and those sites really are so profitable, then what's stopping the Great Morons at Hollywood at creating the same kinds of websites, but then legal?

Re:

One wonders, with all this protest, if any of these bad ideas (ACTA, TPP, etc) were to become laws. How many people would actually follow it?

Following it is the only option. There is no "choice" allowed here. It will be the law of the land, our politicians will have sold us out (or soon will be), and doing other than what it allows us to do is illegal infringement of Intellectual Property, right or wrong, whether we like it or not.

Do you think you have a right to use 21st Century culture? Can you back that up with a good lawyer, better than the *AAs lawyers?

I'm not even a pirate (I advocate boycotting them), but I see the slop over effects this will have on everyone, and it sickens me that the *AAs just have to buy a few Congressmen, and the Internet will be pleading for its right to exist or do anything useful for us.